Job Hunter's Toolbox: InterviewBest

Posted by: Douglas MacMillan on November 20

Editor’s note: In this review series, BusinessWeek.com staff writer Doug MacMillan will try out the latest tools designed to help you stand from the pack in today’s cutthroat job market. Check in every three weeks for a thorough test-run of a different job hunting tool, from high-tech applications – like job search engines and resume builders – to books and blogs written by top career gurus. If you know of a great job hunting tool Doug should check out, let him know. This week: prepping for interviews without having to talk to yourself in a mirror.

THE GOOD
Puts job candidates through the paces of an interview; helps them become a more assertive interview subject

THE BAD
Costs money; likely to be viewed as over-aggressive, condescending, or gimmicky to a hiring manager

THE BOTTOM LINE
Use the free two-week trial for some helpful interview prep – but don’t deliver a PowerPoint presentation to your prospective employer

Every day, job hunters avail themselves of the hundreds of resources on the web that help them create polished resumes, find job openings, and build a network of professional contacts. But online, there’s not much help for tackling one of the toughest parts of the process: the interview.

That’s unfortunate, because it’s one area where job candidates need the most help, according to Eric Kramer, who has helped thousands of people land jobs in his 20-year turn as a career coach. “I kept hearing the same thing: They were very anxious and very nervous about the interview, and they would go in self-conscious,” Kramer says. “They would come out of the interview saying ‘the [hiring manager] talked about themselves the whole time, and I didn’t get to tell them everything that’s great about me.’”

So Kramer set out to build an online tool that would help people take job interviews into their own hands. In February, he launched InterviewBest, a web site with step-by-step instructions for creating a job interview “presentation” – a series of talking points the candidate uses to demonstrate why their particular skills and experience are right for the job.

Wait a second. Isn’t it the hiring manager’s job to lead the interview? Not exactly, according to Kramer. “It’s supposed to be a shared responsibility between the candidate and the interviewer,” he says. Prospective employees should be more assertive, almost as if they are giving a sales pitch, he adds. The idea is to show off some of the skills one would need after they get the job. What’s more, Kramer believes most hiring managers only give a handful of interviews a year, and would jump at any candidate who offers to help them through what might be an unfamiliar process for them. “Most of them are relieved,” Kramer says.

InterviewBest users sign up on the site for a free two-week trial, or they can pay $30 for a month, $60 for three months, or $100 for six months. The site then walks them through a 10-step process, where they fill in fields like “position requirements,” “personal success factors,” and “action plan goals,” as well as questions tailored to specific job titles. When they’re done, they print out a booklet that presents this information in one tidy package.

I believe any job hunter would benefit from this part of the process – thinking critically about why they are a good match for one specific job. Many interviewees may say they do this in their heads, but being asked by an online guide forces you to be more concrete, and perhaps more truthful.

It’s the next part of InterviewBest that I imagine gets a little awkward – the actual interview. The site tells users to walk into the interview, and say something like “I am very interested in this job and I have developed a 20-minute presentation about why I am an excellent candidate for this job. May I share it with you?”

I asked three current and former professionals how they would react if a job candidate used this line on them. They all agreed: It’s a little over the top. Here’s a sampling of their responses:

Laurie Ruettimann, former HR pro with 12 years of experience in top 500 companies and operator of the blog Punk Rock HR: “This tool would annoy me. These tools empower the candidate to take ownership of the interview process and convey a message they want to communicate. An interview isn't really about a candidate as much as it's about finding the right asset for a company to acquire.”

Alison Green, chief of staff for a medium-sized nonprofit and operator of the Ask a Manager blog: “It would irritate the hell out of me. I know how I want to structure the interview, how much time I want to spend on what, and I want candidates to take their cues from me. It comes across as inappropriately aggressive when a candidate tries to take control with their own presentation.”

Lance Haun, an HR pro who has five years in the field runs the blog YourHRGuy.com: “I could definitely see some hiring managers [viewing] this as condescending. If I were interviewing for a director of sales and they could not differentiate themselves without this product, I would seriously question whether or not this would be a great hire. If you want to bring something in addition to your resume to the interview, I would say bring examples of your work.”

Kramer says the tool is already a proven success. He’s tested it with 80 job hunters – offline – and says every one of them got a job using it. Some were even rejected in the first or second interviews, and kept on using the presentation packet.